Mayor Eric Adams faced an uphill battle for re-election in the Democratic primary. He has decided to run as an independent in November.
Mayor Eric Adams of New York City said on Thursday that he would not run for re-election in the Democratic primary in June, an acknowledgment of the growing backlash against his embrace of President Trump and his record-low approval ratings.
Mr. Adams said he would instead run as an independent in the general election in November — an uphill battle in a city where Democrats outnumber Republicans by six to one.
His announcement comes a day after the five-count federal corruption indictment that he faced was dismissed by a federal judge, following the Trump Justice Department’s decision to abandon the prosecution.
Mr. Adams released a video saying that his case had made it difficult for him to run in the June 24 primary.
“Although I am still a Democrat, I am announcing that I will forgo the Democratic primary for mayor and appeal directly to all New Yorkers as an independent candidate in the general election,” he said.
The collapse of the mayor’s primary campaign was a stunning setback for a charismatic leader who once called himself the “future of the Democratic Party.” But in recent months, as Mr. Adams publicly avoided criticizing Mr. Trump, he began to distance himself from party orthodoxy.
